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Apology Averts Libel Trial With Mulroney

January 07, 1997|By From Tribune News Services.

TORONTO, CANADA — Canada's government apologized Monday to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for suggesting he received kickbacks for an airplane contract, avoiding an unprecedented libel trial scheduled for Monday.

Under the settlement reached Sunday, the government also agreed to pay Mulroney's legal bills, which reportedly rose to several hundred thousand dollars for pretrial work. Mulroney's suit sought the biggest libel award ever in Canada--$36.5 million--and was the first filed against the government by an ex-prime minister.

Mulroney, prime minister from 1984 to 1993, filed the suit in November 1995 against the Justice Department and Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He contended he was libeled in a letter sent to Swiss authorities as part of an investigation into allegations he received kickbacks in the 1988 sale of 34 Airbus jets to Air Canada, which at the time was state-run.